24 Aug 2013

If you are like me, one of the tasks that you wish you were better at but that you find the trickiest to perform on your computer is to tweak your photos to turn them into original designs. In a past entry we have already explored how you can use an iPhone app to add captions to your photos. This time though, we’ll take a look at Studio Design for iPhone, an app that lets you do much more, allowing you to turn your photos into real works of modern print design.

Let’s take a better look at Studio Design.

Once you start the app, you are greeted with the designs of its users, which you can comment on and “like” just as with any other social network. Interestingly, you can also use others’ designs, but we’ll discuss that later in the article.

To create your own design, simply tap the “+” button at the bottom of the screen and select a picture from your camera roll or take one on the spot. The first thing you have to do is resize and re-position your photo as you want it to show on your final design.

Then, customize it even further by applying any of the effects or filters that Studio Design provides at the bottom of the screen.

The fun stuff though, comes when you tap the top left button to reveal the Layers panel. There you are able to select from a wide array of shapes and other design elements, including text, which you can customize thanks to the several fonts available within the app.

Perhaps the main strength of Studio Design is that it also allows you to overlay different layers on top of each other, and each of these able to carry its own effects. This is definitely what sets the app apart from similar ones and what makes possible to create complex and artful designs with it.

One of the most clever aspects of Studio Design’s social integration is that it encourages you to use it thanks to its “Reuse” feature, which lets you take all the elements, filters and effects from any other user’s design and apply them to yours.

As we have mentioned above, the social aspect plays an important role in Studio Design. When you first start the app, you can also choose to sign up via your Facebook account in order to be able to share your creations with your friends faster. In similar fashion, once you are done creating a design, you are also offered to share it with your friends through most popular social networks, like Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. It’s a small touch, but it goes a long way in saving you steps towards sharing with those you care.

And that’s all about Studio Design. It is definitely worth a look, especially for all it lets you accomplish at no cost whatsoever. It makes your photo look slick and trendy.